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How To Achieve A Competitive Edge
by Jill Fraser Credentials
are worthless without a commitment to customer care, maintains international
consultant and author, Robert Rabbin, a pioneer in the field of executive
coaching.
Arguing that consumer confidence cannot be achieved through pieces of paper or
words, he notes, “accreditation and standardisation are very big in Australia,
the attempt being to give the customer a level of security.”
But that is not sufficient, he declares. “You’ve only got to look at the
headlines and see that time and again CEOs of companies have ransacked and
pillaged millions of dollars and guess what, they were all highly credentialed,
highly accredited, highly esteemed individuals.
“What is needed is a clear set of behavior based values and principals that
answer not ‘what we do’ but ‘how we do it.’ The missing ingredient in business
is always how we do it.”
Rabbin, a regular radio guest and keynote speaker, has devised a Customer Care
Program aimed at helping businesses gain a competitive edge in the marketplace
by skewing and challenging their perception of “service.”
Customer service, he says, is a set of behaviors that people are expected to
enact — smiling, making eye contact, etc. — but which makes no real connection.
Customer care, on the other hand, is about empathy, sincerity, and authenticity.
Emphasizing empathy, Rabbin says that’s the vital ingredient in the connection
with customers because it distinguishes between genuine service and the
manipulation of customers for short-term sale.
“Any wise person in marketing and sales will tell you that selling is less
important than developing a relationship.
“As you develop a relationship based on empathy, integrity and care you’re
actually positioning yourself to make a sales to them and everyone they know.”
Trust and integrity, says Rabbin, are empty words “even if I’m holding nine
diplomas.”
“When people are dealing with money issues their real or imagined concerns about
fraudulence automatically kick in. Trust is earned,” he says. “You need to walk
your talk.
“If you provide customers with a mind-blowing, personal experience that includes
many factors — an empathetic connection, a good product at a reasonable price,
care and attention and customised service — they will come back because they
won’t get that experience anywhere else – even in their personal lives.”
For further information, please visit
www.robertrabbin.com.
Jill Fraser is one of Australia’s leading freelance
journalists and proprietor of Words on the Wind Communications.
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